SQEMARINE has issued a new circular to inform about important IMO guidance documents regarding Ballast Water Management, which directly affect the Ballast Water Management Plan of ships. It urges ship managers and operators to take action accordingly.
The two important guidance documents regarding Ballast Water Management are:
- MEPC.387(81): Includes the interim guidance on the application of the BWM Convention to ships operating in challenging water quality conditions.
- BWM.2/Circ.82: Circular provides guidance for the temporary storage of treated sewage and/or grey water in ballast water tanks.
What is new?
The MEPC.387 (81), refers to Challenging Water Quality conditions (CWQ). The general idea is that the installed Ballast Water Treatment systems have operations limitations, to specific water/environmental conditions and same should be taken into consideration when BWTS is operated.
INTERTANKO conducted several surveys and developed the INTERTANKO CWQ database, which refers to specific ports/areas and limitations per system due to prevailing environmental/water conditions.
The Ballast Water Management Plan should be revised to include provisions for how the ship will address such limitations and operate or bypass the Ballast Water treatment system during such Challenging Water Quality Conditions.
The BWM.2/Circ.82 provides the option to ships to convert a dedicated ballast water tank to a tank for temporary storage of treated sewage and/or grey water. Such temporary storage should only be used as an option in specific ports and areas which restrict the discharge of treated sewage and/or grey water and where the ship does not have dedicated tanks with adequate storage capacity for treated sewage and/or grey water.
Actions required
Companies in order to address the new requirements should:
- Review the approved Ballast Water Management Plans, onboard ships in order to add an addendum to include provisions for actions to be followed when ship is operating in Challenging Water Quality conditions.
- Further review is required (for ships which do not have dedicated tanks with adequate storage capacity for treated sewage and/or grey water), in order to set procedures and ship specific actions for the temporary use of a ballast water tank as a treated sewage and/or grey water tank.
Unless instructed otherwise by the ship’s flag Administration, to implement BWM.2/Circ.82 and CWQ requirements, procedures should be incorporated in the ship’s BWMP, as non-mandatory appendices, in a similar manner to how other contingency measures procedures are treated. There is no need to submit the ship’s BWMP for reapproval after a modification to the “non-mandatory” section.
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